Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-02-04
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From an Occasional Currespondent


lf,rom an Occasional Correspondents
W.ashingtonsD. s, Jan. 18th. 1887.
There are ten books In the secret ar +
chlves of the United States Patent Of !;
lice FOR which patent attorneys in t
washington would be willing to give
StGONV. Hl,ey-are the books contain
ing the names and addresses of inyen.
tors whose cases have been rejected I
+ during the past ten years. There has
been average Of sss,G00 cases fled in thej
Ratent Office every year for the the last !,
ten Jears and a yearly average of Is, COO
patents granted. Last year there were
35,N applications fled and 24,O0O pa
tents Issued. the largest nurnbersin any
ore ,=ss,f. On this showing something
like go per cent Of theapplicatlons have
been patented. So there have been
during the last ten years about 100000
rejected cases. These in part include
cases defeated by interferences and APP
| plications allowed, but on which final
! fees have not been paid.
| Now good attorneys get fully SO per
cent of their cases allowed and pntent-
ed; hence there must be some reason
for only 80 per cent OF the applications
being allowed. The reason of this;
| fully 5000 Inventors every year make
out their own cases and try to get them
through 'he Patent Office. No. know
ing the routine, they almost invariably
get involved in the meshes OF red tape
and the intricacies of Patent Office pro-
ctdure. The difficulty may be slight, a
mere formality, a defective drawing.
an improperly worded application. an
indefinite specification, or q slight in
terferance requiring few amendments
which skillful patent attorney could
make in half an hour. But to the in
!, ventor these prove an insurmountable
obstacle; his application is rejected and
he gives up in disgust Or despair
Applications for patents IN the Uni
ted States Patent Office 60 first to the
twenty eight principal examiners. ac-
cortling to the subject matter. If they
are rejected, two years are allowed In
which to amend them or take Other
necessary action. If no action shall
have been taken at the end of two
years, such cases are treated as aban
doned, and ara sent to the division
where they are entered in the books
which the Patent Attorneys SO muci
covet. .Fnlly $4,000 of the rejected
cases of the last ten years fall under
these conditions. At allow estimate
25UCO of these rejected cases put in the
hands of a competent attorney. coult
be patented. y patent attorneys Zee:
On such conditional cases would ht
about S2a per case---a gross sum 0,
S625,OOO. Count out ,iisgusted inven
tors and those not able to pay, still al
enormous number would get out pat
ents if they knew how. But the trou
! ble Is just hereno one outside tht
: Patent O!lice is allowed access to those
: : hle books. And without them they
: can not learn the name and address ol
inventors. Then again, there are some
/, $4,000 cases now lying in the Exalnin
: er's rooms awaiting the two years limit
These are still more valuaDlc, Tor il
: they are taken up BEFORE the tine-limi
: expires. the initial fees do not LAPSE
while in the other cases they wou!t
have to be repaid.
The practice IN the United State.
: Patent O.lice. WAS not always thus
1 During Grants tirst term, for 4 perict
i of about Il year. attorneys were allow
. ed access to the files of abandoned
:, eases, b!.t there was u constant scram
y he and not infreqEently downright
d fights over them, and about 1879 tht
Patent Ufice made them secret.
y Bucklen's Arliica S5alve